FOOTBALL PREVIEW: Tigers look to show improvement this season

Going winless and tieless makes the goal for the new season painfully obvious.“Hopefully improvement,” said Tiverton High coach Bob Murray, whose Tigers a year ago went 0-11 for their first winless season in Murray's three-decade tenure. “Hopefully we improve over what we did a year ago because we struggled immensely last year.”

Going winless and tieless makes the goal for the new season painfully obvious.

“Hopefully improvement,” said Tiverton High coach Bob Murray, whose Tigers a year ago went 0-11 for their first winless season in Murray’s three-decade tenure. “Hopefully we improve over what we did a year ago because we struggled immensely last year.”

They struggled mostly, Murray said, because they routinely gave away too many pounds to their opposition. While they aren’t a team of Hulks this season, they are a bit bigger, perhaps a little faster, and certainly battle tested.

Class-wise, the Tigers have an interesting makeup. As of the time of the interview for this story, they had 17 seniors and two juniors. Sophomores and a handful of freshmen round out the program.

“The kids have worked really really hard this winter lifting,” Murray said, “and they’ve gotten much stronger and a lot bigger than what they were. So we’re anticipating that we perform better on the field.

You come back and you just keep working hard. On time to practice. On time to your job or you lose your job. Work real hard at what you do so that when you’re done you can look in the mirror.”

Dore played most of last year. “At times he had a really good year last year,” Murray said. “And at times it was like, OK, he’s a sophomore. So we’re hoping for improvement there.”

The greatest positional challenge may be along the lines. While the Tigers has some solid veterans, they also have holes to fill.

We’ve had a couple of linemen who played last year decided not to play this year,” he said. “That’s hurt us. Two injuries to linemen, in summer basketball and football here last year. And neither of them is going to play. We’re a little bit thin with our linemen, but we’ll be OK.”

Tiverton opens its season with a non-league game at Narragansett on Saturday, Sept. 13. The Tigers open their Division 4 schedule a week later at Burrillville.